Web: www.geomatics.uottawa.ca

• Main Authors: Eric Séguin, M. Sawada, K. Wilson
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Subjects: Key words; GIS modeling; sea-ice forecasting; sea-ice mapping; Canada; Hudson; Hudson Bay; Sea ice
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.580.2637; http://www.geomatics.uottawa.ca/CIGConference_pdf/SEGUIN_CIG2005.pdf

Twenty-five percent of the grain production in Canada is located closer to the Port of Churchill than any other port. Churchill provides unique opportunities for the export of manufactured, mining, agricultural and forest products, as well as the importation of minerals, steel, building materials, fertilizer, and petroleum products for distribution in Central and Western Canada. This research aims to help extend the port of Churchill’s shipping season by determining shipping routes using geographic information systems, remote sensing and long-range ice forecasting. The need to extend its shipping season is attributable to the harshness of the climate in the Hudson Bay area. Extensive ice coverage throughout the Hudson Bay diminishes the shipping season to approximately 4 months of the year (June 23rd to November 12th). This short shipping season calls for long-range ice forecasting for shippers and the port authority to plan the large. The Canadian Ice Service (CIS) currently provides these forecasts through analog methods. In order to improve such forecasting techniques, the CIS is embarking on creating statistical and spatial models by comparing historical sea-ice with global atmospheric and oceanographic patterns. These modeling efforts will provide a forecast for the entire Hudson’s Bay. This work will feature a suitability model with a spatial-temporal analysis that predicts the path through seasonal sea-ice. Once completed, a least cost path analysis shall be conducted using the suitability model to determine the best viable routes for ships to navigate to and from the port of Churchill. This paper will demonstrate a few concepts in sea-ice prediction with GIS and will introduce the fundamental components for a thorough analysis.